Fox League Teams Up With Architects For Metal AF Season Launch

Fox League, Foxtel’s exclusive Rugby League channel, is metal AF. Last year, they kicked off the 2022 rugby season with Australia’s most successful heavy metal band, Parkway Drive. 

Taking the hint from keen sports lovers who are also into heavier music, Fox League has recruited none other than British metalcore act Architects to start the 2023 rugby season with a bang.

In a teaser video for the forthcoming season narrated by former rugby league player turned actor Matt Nable (Underbelly, Arrow, Mr Inbetween), Architects perform tear gas from their recent tenth album, the classic symptoms of a broken spirit. 

Fox League notes that Architects’ appearance was “filmed on the set of the biggest pre-season shoot to date with the biggest names in the NRL.”

The NRL season begins tonight and can be watched on Foxtel and Kayo Sports.

Architects wrapped up their Australian tour last week, but it wasn’t all fun and games.

An Architects fan at the AEC Theatre, Adelaide, rushed the stage on Friday, 17 February, looking like he was about to attack guitarist Josh Middleton.

As NME Australia and Wall Of Sound reported, before the band performed These Colours Don't Run from 2012's Daybreaker, a fan rushed the stage and yelled "obscenities into a microphone," looking like he was going to attack Middleton before security guards dragged him out.

Before the stage rush, the fan loudly heckled vocalist Sam Carter, demanding the band play old songs out of "respect" for Tom Searle, who died from cancer in 2016. His brother, Dan, is the band's drummer. 

Carter addressed the incident in a speech after the fan was removed: "To turn around and see someone fucking run onstage, and fucking run at Josh… And fucking grab the mic and start shouting whatever the fuck he was shouting – that is fucking insane," he began.

Commenting on what was said about the band not respecting Tom Searle, Carter said, "We respect Tom every single fucking day of our lives and every single moment that this band has continued on with. So to turn around and [see] that my fucking best friend is being fucking attacked by somebody, get the fuck out of here. It’s just music."

As Carter described to The Music, the band have dealt with many attacks since the passing of Tom Searle. He told the Adelaide audience: "This is the thing that people need to understand. This shit that goes on the internet – the way that people fucking talk to each other – it can’t fucking carry on like this. It’s just fucking music. We’re just up here doing our fucking best – there’s no need for violence, there’s no need to run up onstage and do this shit in 20-fucking-23."

Architects will open for Metallica from May to July in Europe alongside Mammoth WVH.